Taser deaths by police in Vermont and elsewhere clearly show that it is time for a moratorium on what the UN calls a “torture weapon.”

On the evening of June 20th in Thetford VT, Macadam Mason was just another all-but-anonymous 39-year-old artist, an alcoholic sober three years, a father of three who had epilepsy and mental health issues in the bargain. He’d had a grand mal seizure the day before and was suffering what, for him, were the typical disorienting after effects that usually lasted for days.

On June 21, he was dead. A Vermont State Trooper, responding to a call from a hospital suggesting that Mason was suicidal and possibly dangerous to others, ended up killing the unarmed, disoriented Mason with a taser...